It’s Not Rocket Science: 7 Game-Changing Traits for Achieving Uncommon Success

Readers looking for strategies for success may be disappointed by this spirited but surface-deep offering from Spio, cofounder of the technology and marketing company Vidaroo and U.S. Ambassador of Innovation. As promised, Spio outlines seven traits she considers necessary for successful innovators, including “unbridled creativity,” “radical passion,” “active compassion,” “obsessive focus,” “relentless hustle,” “extreme audacity,” and “pit bull tenacity.” In the process, however, she relies on some off-puttingly simplistic ideas, such as that “all businesses are examples of active compassion.” Her own life story, which took her from a modest childhood in Ghana to engineering for Boeing, is inspiring, and Spio offers some good, albeit repetitive, points to go with it. These include the importance of setting your sights high, surrounding yourself with people who do great work, and achieving laser-like focus on getting the best results. Another plus is that the examples of success Spio chooses, such as pioneering ophthalmologist Patricia Bath, are not the standard go-to choices for business manuals. Despite these strengths, the book lacks the depth for Spio to fully develop her ideas.[em] Agent: Jeff Herman, Jeff Herman Agency. (Feb.) [/em]